Kid's Book Blog

by Holly Hobbie
Ages 4-8
Fanny, who wears eyeglasses, a headband, a tutu, leggings, and sneakers, is no ordinary girl. More than anything, she wants a high-fashion Connie doll. However, her mother does not like the way the doll looks, so Fanny is unlikely to get one. Fanny attempts to resolve this situation by making her own rag doll, which she loves well enough until her friends make fun of it. Fanny decides she likes her doll and brings it on a playdate.

The soft watercolor illustrations show this protagonist to be an independent thinker as well as a talented seamstress. Sometimes not following the crowd can have unexpectedly wonderful results.

by David Catrow
Grades K-3

Max Spaniel is a daffy hound dog who decides to go on a dinosaur dig. He takes his trusty butterfly net and hard hat on the expedition. The silly dog mistakes a football for a dinosaur head, a Lincoln log for a dinosaur rib, a water hose for a dinosaur tail and so on. The dim witted dog puts the junk together and builds a dinosaur!

Kids will be endlessly amused by the silly dog and his adventure.  New readers will laugh out loud as they follow the fantastical thoughts of this kooky hound. The ingenious story, by David Catrow, is easy to read with lots of visual humor.

Grades: PreSchool-Kindergarten

This is a pretty darn cute book. There is a baby bear who is bored. The baby bear wakes up the sleepy bear and they use their imagination to find something to do. They go for a walk and find a stick and start drawing in the dirt. They create (by drawing in the dirt) a ladder to go to the moon and then draw stars until they get tired and hungry and go home.

The drawings are simple and look like they were drawn with a crayon. The colors are simple: gray and black with a splash of color (like the cover). The font of the text is large and easy to read; there is plenty of negative space left on the page.

Drawing things into creation is an interesting thought that I always enjoy when explored thematically in picture books. Writing a story is creation and is done with pen and paper. So why not create a ladder and climb to the moon? I love that this concept is being introduced to young minds.

This is a simple story that brings up lots of topics you can discuss with your child.